When the Israeli prime minister addressed the UN General Assembly last week, neither John Kerry nor Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, attended. Reportedly, Power was told to sit out the speech by her superiors. Elliott Abrams comments:
Think of how petty [this decision], which can only have come from the White House, really is. To sit in the seat and listen to Netanyahu isn’t endorsing his remarks; it is the politeness we owe an ally. Deliberate absence recalls the years in which dozens of delegations, Arab and “Third World,” would leave the chamber when any Israeli rose to speak. This administration is still griping about diplomatic errors Netanyahu has made, but a refusal to have the U.S. ambassador listen to his speech is petty and damaging, hinting to anti-Israel delegations that the United States may be willing to let all sorts of anti-Israel measures go without opposition or criticism.
This is a low point for seven years of Obama diplomacy.
Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2015/10/02/the-obama-vendetta-against-netanyahu/